Tests done in Athens show panther from Florida

Posted: Thursday, August 06, 2009

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The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service confirmed Wednesday that a panther shot by a hunter in Troup County last year was a related to wild panthers in South Florida.

After a hunter shot the big cat in November, workers at the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study in Athens performed a necropsy and found that the panther was healthy and had no signs of microchips or other common identification methods.

Because Florida panthers had not been documented in Georgia in years, experts suspected that this animal escaped or was intentionally released from captivity. With the genetic confirmation that the animal is a Florida panther, it is possible that the cat traveled from South Florida to Georgia.

"Finding a Florida panther that far from Southwest Florida is out of the ordinary, but male panthers, particularly younger ones, can travel great distances," said Paul Souza, Field Supervisor of the South Florida Ecological Services Office.